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Salt dough and nature items are our favorites materials to create with hands down. I don’t know what is more fun, gathering the nature or pressing it into the dough and seeing what new and exciting things that you can come up with. There are so many amazing possibilities. We have made nature islandswith branches and leaves and pine cone creatures with pipe cleaners. And do you remember when we made those adorable fairies with acorns, sticks and clay? Well those little fairies needed a home and we couldn’t wait to make them one. These sweet pine cone fairy houses are simple and enchanting.

My daughter has had a lot of questions about leprechauns. “Are they like an elf?” “Where do they live?” “Do they live in gingerbread houses?” These are just a few of the questions that I have received from my little girl in recent weeks. We looked up some pictures of leprechauns and where they live. “Mama, the leprechaun’s house looks like my fairy door.” Leprechauns and their homes are indeed enchanting and magical just like the fairies that my daughter loves so much.

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Because of all of this, I thought that making a leprechaun door would be fun for us to do.

I’m sure that I have mentioned it before, but I love gingerbread. It is one of my absolute favorite things about this time of year. I look forward to baking it, smelling it, eating it and my daughter and I have fun doing arts and crafts projects inspired by it. Here are some wonderful gingerbread inspired ideas to welcome in the holiday season.

We have been on a bit of a mixed media winter art kick over the past couple of weeks. My daughter really enjoys it and we have created some beautiful pieces together.

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The beauty of mixed media is there are so many options in creating a piece of art. You can use paint, markers, ink, crayons, newspaper, construction paper, tissue paper or embellishments such as buttons or glitter to create your masterpiece.

I am sure most of you already know the classic tale of the three little pigs. You know how the story goes. Those cute little pigs set out into the world and each built themselves a house out of a different building material. If you tune in with us often, you know that we read a lot in our house. If given the choice between books & just about anything else, my daughter will choose books every time. We have been reading a lot of Dr. Seuss lately and also hitting the nursery rhymes. ‘The Three Little Pigs’ has been a new one for her. She huffs and puffs right along with the story.

Reading about those little pigs inspired us to build our own pig houses. This is not a new idea by any means, but it is a fun one & a great way to relate to the story.

We gathered sticks outside and then cut up foam board for the bricks. I found old craft wheat that worked perfectly for our straw.

We built our house bases out of cardboard for the body & construction paper for the roofs. I rolled plain play dough out on the houses for the brick & sticks and left the house meant for the straw plain.

I gave my daughter the 3 houses & let her press the brick pieces & sticks into place.

We used glue to make our straw house.

While working on their project try discussing the story with them. Ask them which was the strongest house, have them put the houses in sequence according to the story or even read the book to them while they build.

My daughter liked building her houses. She told me that she liked building the dough houses best. I think the brick house was her favorite.

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As you know, we are staying with my husband’s aunt as we await the completion of our home. There is a sweet 2-year-old that lives with her & my daughter & her have become two peas in a pod. My daughter has been taking on a big sister role. She has been trying to teach and at times gets a little bossy, but it is adorable to watch. They spend a lot of time drawing and reading together & I spend a lot of time doing both with them as well. Every time they draw together my little one always asks her friend “What are you drawing?” The answer is usually the same “a house”. She loves to draw houses.

Houses are fun & easy to make and with the holiday season approaching, when I think houses, I think gingerbread.

The idea was that I wanted the girls to make gingerbread house ornaments out of Popsicle sticks. My first design I liked, but it was more time-consuming than what I had wanted for a simple craft & I did not want to repeat it several times.

I made these simpler houses instead.

I asked the girls what color they wanted their houses.

I cut squares out of construction paper in the color of their choice & glued Popsicle sticks around them like shown.

I cut out a triangle for a roof & lined the sides with sticks as well.

I glued the square over the triangle as shown.

I glued a loop of yarn around the back of each for hanging. When all the glue was dry. I gave both children their houses & let them decorate. They used buttons & markers.

They both made lovely ornaments.

My daughter wanted to hang hers right away. We do have a tree yet, but we hung it on the door knob for her.

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I love doing crafts with my daughter. It is always fun to see what she can do. One of my favorite crafts to do with her is shape crafts. I love to watch what she will construct and listen to her tell the stories about what she just made. Last night we took some of those shapes & used them to form haunted houses. Here’s how…

Cut out a bunch of shapes as shown. You will need two shapes for your house base & tower, two triangles for your roofs & two rectangles for chimneys. Cut small squares & rectangles out of yellow paper for the windows.

Glue your house base in place.

Glue on your roof. Draw a cross in the middle of your yellow squares to form the windows & then glue them in place as well.

Glue your tower next to your house & add the chimneys.

Cut out a circle to form a moon & glue it in place. Add googly eyes to finish off your haunted houses.

These houses came out so cute that it inspired one more haunted house craft.

Footprint Haunted House

Paint your child’s foot in all black. Stamp it onto a piece of paper & let it dry.

My child has very little concept of time. It is hilarious because she knows the names of the days of the week and she will use them with no real understanding of when that day actually is. She will reminisce about a something that happened weeks ago & retell it saying that it just happened yesterday. It is no surprise then that she does not have much of a grasp on the seasons or when the holidays fall. Most of the summer Mai had been asking me to make a gingerbread house. Trying to explain to my daughter that we were in the wrong season for gingerbread is pointless. Last week she was especially insistent, so what is a mommy to do? I promised her that we would make gingerbread houses. To keep with the theme of the season, we made haunted houses. I found this great recipe for pumpkin gingerbread online.

While mommy was in charge of decorating the front, Mai got to do the sides. She hid M&M’s & gummy worms in the house through the windows. We gave her a bowl of icing to dip her candy in to make it easier. She dipped the candy in the icing & then decorated her face more than the house.

It was a lot of work, but it was a fun project for me & the munchkin. I can’t wait for Christmas now to do it again.

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